Hello, I am new to this website and would appreciate any feedback regarding my current question.

I am currently a college student at a local community college here in at Mt. San Antonio College located just outside of Los Angeles. I am almost done with my associates degree in Database Management Systems. The degree includes classes such as Systems Analysis and Design, Linux OS, and Database Management with SQL.

After I get my associates I am debating on whether or not I should immediately pursue my bachelors or take a year to earn some certifications. My reason's for pursuing certifications are 1.) Because I have already taken some of the classes needed for those certs. 2.) I am 26 years old, have a family to take care of and want to get into the professional IT field as soon as possible. A big bachelors degree might take some time for me to get.

The certifications I would be earning in a year would be:

-Programming in Java

-Computerized Accounting

-Oracle Database Management

-Big Data Analytics

Like I said, I would eventually be going back for my bachelors degree anyways but I need to get into the field as soon as possible.

So my question to my fellow community members is... Will an associates degree in DBMS combined with these certificates help me score a decent paying job in the IT field? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

8 Replies

Experience will score you the job, not credentials alone. IT isn't like medical or legal where there's a defined path of education required.

Use degrees and certs to validate experience, not gain it. Finish your current degree program, but shift your focus on gaining hands-on experience. Anything you learn in the classroom is based solely on perfect-world textbook scenarios. That academic experience needs to be tempered with how things actually work in the real world, including problems that aren't addressed in Chapter 14, for example. How you resolve a problem is more important in IT than knowing how to write a Hello, World script in 28 languages.

Those four certs you mention are wildly divergent, and make you look more like a paper chaser.

Disclosure: I have both a BS and MS in IT/business disciplines. I've been through schooling for countless years -- ironically enough, it took me 26 years to go from graduating high school to earning my master's degree :) I'm not trying to discourage you from pursuing education, but if your goal is to get working soon, don't spend your time and money in a classroom. Degrees can wait, and you can also go to school part-time while working.

I agree with WeirdFish​ in that it will most likely be difficult to get the job you're actually hoping for without being 'in the trenches" for at least a little while gaining the experience the employers are looking for. In my experience, certs and degrees are certainly important, but hands-on experience is king. Start somewhere (even if it's not the dream job) and then study on the side as you can. Bonus: In some cases, you may even be able to get the company to foot the bill for certs and degrees, so always factor that in when considering pay/benefits.

I would jump into the field, as the experience seems to be king now a days. Alot of good companies will help pay their employees to get certs that better them at their jobs. I went that route, and have been able to work my way up from starting out that way out of college.

You can get the certificates at anytime. Experience is great and all but that comes with time. Finish your college career. Don't stop with just a 2 year degree. Get the 4 year degree because. Once you stop you will never go back and finish. You can always get experience as you go through college. You can always sign up for conferences and such to get experience. The catch is to always get the CEU credits so that you can use them for experience later. The degree will hold you up in times like this more than experience and certificates. The degree will allow you to pivot when you need to. The lifetime earnings number bear that out.

Finish that 4 year degree. The degree is still king!

If you already have credits towards certificates or CEU and PUD credits. Use those towards credit by experience to complete the 4 year degree. It is called experiential credit. I completed one degree this way and did almost a third of another this way.

Go for the degree! With the automated application systems these days you can hardly get a human to even look at your application much less take the next steps unless you've checked off the boxes they're looking for.